Chapter 2

Psychological
Research
OpenStax Psychology 2E

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 Why is Research Important?

 At one time in history, people believed the earth was flat and that
mental illnesses were caused by possession. People can be very
wrong in their ideas about the world when they do not rely on
evidence to support their claims.
 Research is a mandatory process in validating claims.
 Scientific research is empirical; it is grounded in
objective, tangible evidence that can be observed time and time
again, regardless of who is observing.
 Without research, we would only have intuition and groundless
Figure 2.2 Some of our ancestors, across the world
assumptions. Through research we are able to prove certain
and over the centuries, believed that trephination—
ideas through study and testing.
the practice of making a hole in the skull, as shown
 Psychology is a science, therefore, research is
here—allowed evil spirits to leave the body, thus,
required to not only further investigate something but curing mental illness and other disorders.
provide verification and support of the findings.

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 Use of Research Information

 Advertising campaigns often claim to be

based on “scientific evidence” when in reality
it is based off belief.
 Thinking critically about claims:

 What is the expertise of the person

making the claim?

 What might they gain if the claim is

valid?
Advertisement for patent medicine claiming to cure cancer, early 20th century.
 Does the claim seem justified given the
This image is from the 'Health in America' 2011 calendar produced by the La Guardia and
evidence? Wagner Archives/CUNY. For more images from the Archives' several collections, go to
[Link] CC0 Public Domain. Retrieved from Flickr.

 What do other researchers think of the

claim?

Link to Learning Video: Watch this video about early childhood program effectiveness to learn how scientists evaluate effectiveness and how best to
invest money into programs that are most effective

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 The Process of Scientific Research: Inductive vs Deductive Reasoning
 Deductive reasoning - results are predicted based on a general premise.
For example: All dogs have ears. Poodles are dogs. Therefore, poodles have ears.

 Inductive reasoning - conclusions are drawn from specific observations.

For example: My dog Zelda has white fur. Zelda is lazy. White furry dogs are lazy.

1. Scientists form ideas

(theories/hypotheses) through
inductive reasoning.

2. Hypotheses are then tested through

empirical observations and
scientists form conclusions through
deductive reasoning.

3. These conclusions lead to new

theories and hypotheses (or more
broad generalizations).

Psychological research relies on both inductive and deductive reasoning.

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 The Scientific Method
Scientists use inductive reasoning to form theories which then generate
hypotheses.

Theory – well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for

observed phenomena.

Hypothesis – tentative and testable statement (prediction) about the

relationship between two or more variables.
- Predicts how the world will behave if the theory is correct.
- Usually an “if-then” statement.
- Is falsifiable (capable of being shown to be incorrect ).
Text: OpenStax Psychology 2E is licensed under CC BY 4.0 International.

Many of the specifics of (a) Freud's

theories, such as (b) his division of the The scientific method of research includes proposing
mind into id, ego, and superego, have
fallen out of favor in recent decades hypotheses, conducting research, and creating or
because they are not falsifiable. In modifying theories based on results.
broader strokes, his views set the
stage for much of psychological
thinking today, such as the
unconscious nature of the majority of
psychological processes.

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 Approaches to Research: An Overview

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 Clinical or Case Studies

 Clinical or case studies focus on one

individual. The studied individual is
typically in an extreme or unique
psychological circumstance that
differentiates them for the general
public.

Allows for a lot of insight into a

case.
Difficult to generalize results to The Case of Genie
Genie was studied by psychologists after
the
she was found at age 13, having suffered
larger population. severe abuse and social isolation.
Psychologists were interested in the effect
social isolation had on her development.

YouTube video on Genie Wiley

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 Naturalistic Observation

 Naturalistic behavior is generally

hidden under scrutiny or observation.
 Seeing a police car behind you
would probably affect your driving
behavior.

 To study the most accurate and

genuine behaviors, naturalistic
observation has proven most effective.
(a) Jane Goodall made a career of conducting naturalistic observations of (b) chimpanzee
 Through naturalistic observations, any behavior. (credit “Jane Goodall”: modification of work by Erik Hersman; “chimpanzee”:
modification of work by “Afrika Force”/[Link])
feeling of performance or anxiety of the
studied individuals is eliminated. YouTube video on Jane Goodall - Jane Goodall: A Retrospective
from the Institut Jane Goodall France
 Observer bias - when observations
may be skewed to align with observer
expectations.
 Establishment of clear criteria to
observe should help eliminate
observer bias.
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 Surveys

 A list of questions that can be

delivered in many ways:
 Paper-and-pencil
 Electronically
 Verbally

 Surveys can be used to gather a

large amount of data from a
sample (subset of individuals)
from a larger population. Surveys can be administered in a number of ways, including electronically
administered research, like the survey shown here. (credit: Robert Nyman)
 Surveys can be administered in a
number of ways, including
electronically administered
research.

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 Archival Research

Archival research -
uses past records or
data sets to answer
various research
questions, or to search
for interesting patterns or
relationships.
A researcher doing archival research examines records, whether archived as a (a)
hardcopy or (b) electronically. (credit “paper files”: modification of work by
“Newtown graffiti”/Flickr; “computer”: modification of work by INPIVIC
Family/Flickr)

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 Longitudinal, Cross-Sectional, and Sequential Research
 Longitudinal Research – The same group of  Cross-Sectional Research –  Sequential Research –
individuals (a cohort) is surveyed or Compares multiple groups of a Combines aspects of longitudinal
measured repeatedly over an extended population at a single time (such as and cross- sectional research in
period of time. different age groups). which a researcher repeatedly
compares multiple age groups at
 Researchers often expect  Attrition is greatly the same point over an
some participants to drop out and minimized. intermediate period of time
typically recruit a large number of
participants. Attrition is the reduction  Less costly than  This design helps to
in the number of research participants longitudinal research. discover possible cohort
due to drop out. effects.
 Differences between groups may
 Longitudinal research is reflect social and cultural factors
costly and time consuming unique to each group (cohort
effects), rather than development.

YouTube video on
Longitudinal and Cross Sequential Studies
by Charles Shallhorn
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Images retrieved from Research Methods in Developmental Psychology by Angela Lukowski and Helen Milojevich under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 4.0 International License. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers.
 Correlational Research
 Correlation – Relationship between two or more variables; when two variables are correlated, one variable changes as the
other does.
 Correlation Coefficient - number from -1 to +1, indicates the strength (number) and direction (sign) of the relationship
between variables, and usually represented by r.

 Correlations have predictive value.

Positive Correlation – Negative Correlation - The closer the number

Two variables change two variables change in is to zero, the weaker
in the same direction, different directions, with the relationship, and
both becoming either one becoming larger as the less predictable the
larger or smaller. the other becomes relationships between
smaller; a negative the variables becomes.
correlation is not the
same thing as no
correlation.

Scatterplots are a graphical view of the strength and direction of correlations. The stronger the correlation, the closer
the data points are to a straight line.

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 Correlation Does Not Indicate Causation

A major limitation in correlational research is the inability to establish causality (i.e., cause and effect).

Cause-and-effect relationship - changes in one variable cause the changes in the other variable; can be
determined only through an experimental research design

With correlational research, one must consider confounding variables.

Confounding variable - unanticipated outside factor that affects both variables of interest, often giving the
false impression that changes in one variable causes changes in the other variable.

Example of a Confounding Variable:

• As ice-cream sales increase, so does the overall rate in crime.

• A relationship exists between ice-cream and crime but is it correlation or does one cause the other?
• In this example, temperature is a confounding variable. As the temperature increases, ice-cream sales
increase and people are more likely to be outside increasing crime rates.

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 Illusory Correlations

 As well as mistaking correlation for causation, Is Our Behavior Affected By the Moon?
people can also make false correlations.
One well-known illusory correlation is the
 Illusory Correlations - Seeing relationships supposed effect that the moon’s phases have
between two things when in reality no such on human behavior; specifically, that people
act strangely when the moon is full.
relationship exists. It is a false correlation.

 Confirmation bias is one explanation for

illusionary correlations

 Confirmation bias - tendency to ignore

evidence that disproves ideas or beliefs.

Many people believe that a full moon makes people behave oddly. (credit: Cory
Zanke)

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 Causality: Conducting Experiments & Using the Data

 The only way to establish that there is a

cause-and-effect relationship between
two variables is to conduct a scientific
experiment.
 A scientific experiment has precise
requirements for design and
implementation.
 An experimental hypothesis can
be formulated through:
How might the use of technology in the classroom
 Observation impact learning? (credit: modification of work by
Nikolay Georgiev/Pixabay)

 After review of previous research

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 Designing an Experiment
 Experimental and Control Groups  Defining Variables and How They Will
 Experimental group - The participants that be Measured
experience the manipulated variable (group designed to
answer the research question).  Operational definition - description
 of what actions and operations will
Control group - Participants that do not
experience the manipulated variable. be used to measure the dependent
variables and manipulate the
Serve as a basis for comparison and controls for chance independent variables.
factors that might influence the results of the study
Experimental manipulation is the only difference between the
experimental and control groups, so any differences between YouTube video on
the two are due to experimental manipulation rather than operational definitions by Josh Knapp
chance.

Image retrieved from Pytolearn and is licensed under [Link]

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 Designing an Experiment: Avoiding Bias and the Placebo Effect
 Avoiding Bias  Placebo effect - people’s expectations or beliefs influencing
 Experimenter bias - researcher or determining their experience in a given situation.
expectations skew the results of the study.
 When people are given a pill to improve their
 Participant bias – participant mood their mood may increase just because they
expectations skew the results of the study. believe it will.

Single-blind study - experiment in which the  To know if a medication is really having an effect or
researcher knows which participants are in the whether it us a placebo effect, the experimental group
experimental group and which are in the receive the medication and the control group receive
control group but participants do not. (Controls a placebo treatment (a sugar pill). This is a double-blind
for participant expectations). study.
Double-blind Study - experiment in which
both the researchers and the participants are  Any differences between the groups will be due to
blind to group assignments. (Controls for both the medication.
participant and experimenter expectations).

Providing the control group with a placebo treatment protects against bias caused by expectancy. (credit:
Elaine and Arthur Shapiro)

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 Variables

Independent Variable – Variable that is influenced/controlled by the experimenter. Ideally this

should be the only important difference between the experimental and control group.

Dependent Variable – Variable that the researcher measures to see how much effect the
independent variable had.

Youtube video on
Independent vs Dependent Variable from
Nucleus Medical Media

In an experiment, manipulations of the independent variable are expected to result in

changes in the dependent variable. (credit “automatic weapon”: modification of work by
Daniel Oines; credit “toy gun”: modification of work by Emran Kassim)

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 Selecting Participants
 Participants – Subjects of psychological research.

 Populations are too large for a researcher to

include everyone so samples are used.

 Sample - subset of individuals selected from the

larger population.

 Population – overall group of individuals that the Researchers may work with (a) a large population or (b) a sample
researcher is interested in (e.g. College students). group that is a subset of the larger population. (credit “crowd”:
modification of work by James Cridland; credit “students”: modification
of work by Laurie Sullivan)

 Random Sample - subset of a larger population in

which every member of the population has an equal
chance of being selected.

 This form of sampling is preferred because it is

more likely that the selected participants will be
representative of the larger population (sex,
ethnicity, social economic status etc).

Simple Random Sampling

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 Assigning Participants To Groups: Experimental or Control

 Random Assignment – Method of experimental group Random Sampling and Random Assignment
assignment in which all participants have an equal chance are not the sample thing.
of being assigned to either group.
Once you have selected your randomly
 Can be achieved using statistical software or by simply selected sample from the population, then the
flipping a coin. next step is to use random assignment to
 Prevents systematic differences between groups such assignment participants to the experimental
as gender or age. and control groups.
 Without random assignment, an experiment cannot find
a true cause-and-effect relationship. Any relationship
could be due to preexisting differences between the This YouTube video explains the difference
groups. between the two:
 Random assignment helps to avoid preexisting Random Sample vs Random Assignment by
systematic differences so that any significant Charles Schallhorn
differences between groups can be said to be the result
of the manipulation.

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 Issues to Consider
 Manipulating Variables
 As stated, random assignment is required to state causation. Once randomly assigned, each
group is then manipulated in some way. However, some experimental designs are more
complicated.
 Example: The effect of sex (male/female) on spatial memory.
 Sex (independent variable) cannot be manipulated.
 Males and females cannot be randomly assigned.
 This kind of an experiment is therefore called quasi-experimental.
 A cause-and-effect relationship cannot be determined from this type of experiment.
 Ethics
 Some questions cannot be answered using an experimental design because they would be
unethical.
 Example: The effect of experiencing abuse as a child on levels of self-esteem.
 You cannot randomly assign participants to receive abuse.
 This would need to be studied using other approaches such as case studies or surveys.

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 Interpreting Experimental Findings

 Once data has been collected, a statistical

analysis is conducted.
 Statistical analysis - determines how likely
any difference between experimental
groups is due to chance.
 Psychologists usually discuss results as
significant or non-significant.
 If the odds that the differences occurred by
chance are 5% or less, then the results are
significant.
 A true experiment, including random
assignment, manipulation of the
independent variable and control of Researchers employ the scientific method that involves a great
deal of statistical thinking: generate a hypothesis --> design a
extraneous variables reduce the odds of study to test that hypothesis --> conduct the study --> analyze
results occurring by chance. the data --> report the results. [Image: widdowquinn,
[Link] CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, [Link]
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Image retrieved from Statistical Thinking by Beth Chance and Allan Rossman is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International License.
 Reporting Findings

 Research is usually reported in scientific journals.

 Usually aimed at an audience of professionals/scholars.
 Articles published are peer-reviewed journal articles.
 Peer-reviewed journal article – article read by several other scientists
(usually anonymously) with expertise in the subject matter, who provide
feedback regarding the quality of the manuscript before it is accepted for
publication.
 Helps to weed out poorly conceived or executed studies.
 Improves articles with suggested revisions.
 Determines whether the research is described clearly enough to be
replicated by other researchers.
 Replication
 Determines reliability of original research design.
 Can include additional measures that expand on the original findings.
Researchers strive to publish the results
 Provide more evidence to support the original finding or to cast doubt of their research in psychology journals.
on those findings.
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Image retrieved from Wikimedia Commons is from American Psychological Association and is in the public domain.
 Bad science & Retraction: The Vaccine-Autism Myth

Many peer-reviewed publications published research making

claims that routine childhood vaccines cause some children to
develop autism.

Since these reports, large-scale research was carried out

suggesting that vaccinations are not responsible for causing
autism.

Many of the original studies have since been retracted.

It was found that the leading research in the original study had a
financial interest in establishing a link between childhood
vaccines and autism.

Unfortunately the initial claims were publicized and many people

Some people still think vaccinations cause autism.
still think vaccinations cause autism. (credit: modification of work by UNICEF Sverige)

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 Reliability and Validity

Reliability - consistency and reproducibility of a given result. YouTube video on the

different types of reliability
 Would the same test give the same results every time? from Research Methods
 When a study involves observations by multiple people, it is and Statistics
important that they all make observations and record them
in the same way.
 Inter-rater reliability - measure of agreement among
observers on how they record and classify a particular event.
 A reliable, consistent measurement does not always meant
that it is measuring something correctly. YouTube video on the
Validity - accuracy of a given result in measuring what it is different types of validity
designed to measure. from Research Methods
and Statistics
 Does a test measure what it is meant to measure?
 A valid measure is always reliable but a reliable measure
is not always valid.

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 Ethics: Research Involving Human Participants
Research involving human participants must adhere to strict
guidelines.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) – Committee of administrators,

scientists, and community members that reviews proposals for
research involving human participants.
- Exist at any research institution that receives federal support for
research involving human participants.
- Generally, IRB must approve research proposal before it can
proceed.

An institution’s IRB meets regularly to

Informed consent - process of informing a research participant about review experimental proposals that involve
human participants. (credit: modification of
what to expect during an experiment and then obtaining the person’s work by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
consent to participate. Includes: (LAKE)/Flickr)
- Potential risks involved
- Implications of the research
- Notification that participation is voluntary
- Notification that any data collected will be kept confidential

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 Ethics: Research Involving Animal Subjects

- 90% of psychological research involving animal

subjects uses rodents or birds.

- Animals make good substitutes because many

of their basic processes are sufficiently similar
to those in humans.

- Animals are used when the research would be

unethical in human participants.
Rats often serve as the subjects of animal research.

- Researchers must still aim to minimize pain or

distress.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

(IACUC) - committee of administrators,
scientists, veterinarians, and community
members that reviews proposals for research
involving non-human animals.

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